From 18-21 October
I was a member of the German delegation to the First International Congress
for Spiritual Concord in the City of Alma Ata, the capital of the Republic
of Kazakhstan, Central Asia. I met three people who confirmed having
met a man who looked extremely similar to the one on the Nairobi photograph.
He had appeared before them and disappeared in the same way as was described
by other people who had the same experiences.

The First Congress of Spiritual Concord was initiated by the International
Association Peace through culture (PTC), which was founded by Valentin
Siderov, President of the Nicholas Roerich Society, Moscow, together
with members of the Russian Pen-Club, the Theosophical Society in Madras,
the Krishnamurti Foundation, and other groups. Among the first supporters
of PTC were Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa when he was still in
power. Other supporters were the Dalai Lama, the Indian ex-President
Zail, President Nasarbajew, Arkadij Wolsky and other prominent political
and cultural names from Russia.

In May 1992 an appeal was issued by Valentin Siderov calling urgently
for the Congress, before the end of the year, to discuss on a wide international
scale the necessity of placing spiritual principles together with political
actions. Because of the unstable political situation in Moscow, the
Congress was finally held in Alma-Ata. The city of Alma-Ata, near the
northern Himalayas and only 300 km from the Chinese border, is known
as an important cultural and interfaith centre of the country. In fact,
more than 120 ethnic groups of different cultures and religions live
peacefully together in Kazakhstan, among them orthodox Christians, Jews,
Muslims, Buddhists.

There were about 2,500 participants at the congress, including 600 representatives
from 300 different countries. All world religions were represented,
together with members of the Rama Krishna Mission, the Brahma Kumaris
World University, the Zoroastrians, Agni Yoga groups, Kalmuks and various
others.

Lecture about Maitreya

One of the first contributions was given by PTC President Siderov, who
gave a short overview of the ethical and economic crisis in the world.
He made an appeal for a second revolution, the revolution of the spirit,
and recalled Russia's spiritual mission for the world in the coming
time. This time is called "the Century of the Holy Spirit" or "the Great
Comforter" in the old books of orthodox wisdom. In the Russian tradition,
the "Holy Spirit" has the same meaning as the Buddhist teachings: The
"Lord Maitreya".

However, according to Valentin Siderov, the Lord Maitreya would never
return on the physical plane or in a physical body but would manifest
himself in the hearts of all men. This new opening between humanity
and cosmos will be followed by great cosmic help for our planet.

During the opening of the conference, a young man in a white robe had
attracted my attention because, from a distance, he might have been
a brother of the Nairobi appearance of Maitreya. He was always surrounded
by a group of Kazakh people who seemed to worship him. I too tried to
get closer to him, perhaps because I hoped to find Maitreya. Later,
I was told that this man was a great, young healer: the holy Lama Sary
Aulie.

When I realized how confusing it was to be running all over the place
looking for someone in a white robe who could have been Maitreya, I
felt really miserable. So I decided ÷ after the lecture about Maitreya
÷ to keep quiet, stay centred, watching what would happen.

As I left the hall there was a beautiful costumed group in front of
the building arranging a group photograph. They asked me to join them.
Although we could not communicate because of language differences we
had a lot of fun. Somebody gave me his card, so I got to know that the
group was of the the Kazakh Healer Association. While all this was happening
I felt very relaxed and quiet inside.

Later, when I returned to my hotel room, one of the young women I just
met during the group photo was sitting there. Nicolai, her Russian interpreter,
had called her to give healing to a friend of mine with whom I was sharing
a room. Her name was Aigul. Nicolai told me that Aigul was a healer
and that she had become very known recently because she had predicted
the great earthquake of Armenia three weeks in advance. She gave my
friend precise information about his illness and about events from his
past.

Next day I met her again. I suddenly had the idea to show her the photograph
of Maitreya in Nairobi, which I always carried with me. "Who is this
man?" I asked her. When she looked at the photograph, something changed
in her expression. Then she told me that this man had appeared to her
at about five o'clock in the morning of 16 August 1991. She was in her
bedroom with her husband. It was no dream, she was fully awake, as the
man suddenly appeared in front of her. She could not move, so strong
was the energy that came from him. The man had looked exactly like the
one in Nairobi, she said, only his beard was white and a bit longer.
He told her that she was going to heal from then on. She did not understand,
but later, when she left the house, she felt an "enormous energy". She
could even stop the cars in the street. "I did not know how to handle
that enormous amount of energy at first," she told me.

From that moment her whole life changed. She had been a simple housewife
with six children. Suddenly she could diagnose medical problems, of
which she previously had not the slightest idea. She knew the future
and the past of a person. She saw everything in a different way. One
day she was looking at TV. Suddenly there was the face of that man on
the screen, then a date written beneath, and ruined houses. This was
the earthquake of Armenia, exactly three weeks before it happened. "It
was Mohammed I had seen, and who had come to me," she said.

It seems important to mention that this was the first time she had spoken
to anyone else, apart from her husband. "You know, I am from a small
village, everybody knows everybody. I did not dare tell them what I
had seen".

She was very excited. I tried to give her more information material
from Share International, but she could only read Kyril writing. So
I told her all I knew about Maitreya and that each man would recognize
him in his own way ÷ the Christians as Christ, the Moslems as the Imam
Mahdi, the Buddhists as Maitreya. It took some minutes, but then she
understood. "Your friend Ben is right," she said. "Tell him".
We decided to see Mr Kozhalymov, the President of her association, and
we met him in front of the congress hall. Much to my amazement I had
already met him the day before during the group photo session. We exchanged
cards. When Aigul showed him the photo of Nairobi, he touched it with
his fingers and closed his eyes. He seemed to remember something. Then
he described how he had often seen this man before going to sleep. "A
very holy man," he said, but he did not want to spend more time on it.

In the evening we met some other of Aigul's friends. We showed them
the photos of Nairobi and the crosses of light. It was a pity they could
not read the text. However Aigul promised to send me a letter with an
exact description of her experience.
In the evening some of our party had taken part in a healing ceremony
of Sary Aulie, the white-dressed man. They were very impressed. Obviously
he was a great healer. However it seemed difficult to contact him. When
I was on my way to the Congress hall, he suddenly came up in front of
me. I managed somehow to pull the Nairobi picture quickly out of my
bag. There was no interpreter around and I could not express my question.
When Sary Aulie saw the picture, he stopped. It took some time for him
to find someone who could translate Kazak into English. Obviously he
wanted urgently to explain something to me. "I know this man", he finally
said. "This is my ancestor. He can appear and disappear. He is my teacher.
He comes often to me and I know where to find him". He wanted to keep
the photo and asked me for another appointment at three o'clock in the
afternoon, for a "very special healing ceremony". He seemed to give
great importance to our meeting.

Unfortunately the room where we were to meet was already prepared for
an evening concert. Somebody told me that Sary Aulie and his group would
leave the city in the evening to fly to Turkistan, the 'mecca' of the
region. I tried to find out what this meant for me because I had no
telephone number or address. However only a little later it turned out
that a lady from our group, who lived in the same district as Sary Aulie
and his group, gave me his address. She told me that she ÷ a scientist
specially interested in healing methods of different cultures ÷ had
been invited by Sary Aurlie for next year. I showed her the crosses
of light and she told me that there is a place between Moscow and St
Petersburg where there appear all sorts of geometric forms and crosses
in the sky. "A group of Russian scientists," she said, "has been trying
to give an explanation for these phenomena in the sky for several months."

Meher Master Moss

The last day. The official part of the Congress had just ended. People
were still standing around, discussing the final resolution, which,
in the opinion of many, had not been strong enough.

One of these groups drew my attention, gathered round an Indian lady,
who was obviously giving an interesting interview to some TV reporters.
I recognized her as Meher Master Moss from the Zoroaster group in Bombay.
She had been the only woman in the official delegation committee and
I knew that she had been working in the past for the UN. I listened
to her words: "All the peaceful political events and resolutions of
the recent past are the result of the influence of the Prince of Peace.
He has never left this world and has promised us to come back in physical
presence at the end of this century," she said.

"Could this return be happening already?" I asked. "Oh yes", she answered.
Again I showed her the Nairobi photograph. She looked at it for a short
moment, and then she embraced and blessed me. She asked me to see her
in her hotel in the evening. I went there at seven o'clock. There was
not much time because she still had several official meetings, but she
was very happy to see me and took me to her room. There she told me
that she had seen that man at a conference (I could not tell where.
She spoke very fast and I had difficulty in understanding every word.)
"There was only one difference," she said. "The man I saw was very tall,
with high cheek bones and very luminous eyes. He had a lot of humour".
This reminded me of Patricia Pitchon's experience of seeing Maitreya.

We then discussed briefly Siderov's view that Maitreya will not reappear
in a physical body and can be experienced only by the inner senses of
men, which will develop in each of us within the evolutionary process
of the coming time. She confirmed again that the man she saw had appeared
at the conference in a physical body which he could make appear and
disappear.

Later I had a talk with Siderov. I described to him the experience of
these people with Maitreya and asked him to form his own opinion. He
listened politely, yet did not change his position. He presented the
same old-style attitude, which had dominated the official part of the
conference from the beginning to the end and which had made it impossible
to put new questions or suggest new answers for what is going on in
the moment.

Yet the fact that a spiritual meeting like this had taken place in this
part of the world, which had been suppressed for many years by the old
communist structures, was a sign of hope for all the participants, who
had travelled from all parts of the former USSR to take part. It was
their enthusiasm and their creativity which made those days in Alma-Ata
what it was for all of us: the experience of new ways of communicating
and of tolerance among us all.

The day before our departure, in a hotel in Moscow, I talked to a member
of the Swiss delegation, Freddy Bolak, who belongs to the Sufi Movement.
On the first day I had tried to talk with him about Maitreya, but he
seemed very sceptical. So I used the time to tell him again about the
experience with Aigul, Sary Aulle and Mrs Meher Moss. He listened with
interest. Then he gave me the address of a Turkish Sheikh. "This man,
a highly evolved person who lives on the Turkish border in Cyprus, said
last year that the Imam Mahdi is in the world and will declare Himself
soon. There are a only a few events that have to take place before men
will recognize Him".